Guardian
by LoveDragonsForever
Summary: When Lucy visits Hargeon, she meets a pair of siblings and never meets Natsu. When they all join Fairy Tail, she learns that they are two of the Guardians and that she is the third, the Guardian of Light. She joins them on their quest to stop Chaos from disrupting the balance between Light and Dark. Rated for blood and swearing. Mira/OC, but romance is not a focus of this story


_**Chaotic Shiny was used for the generation of the language across the sea. There, I said it, now I can get on to more important matters**_

_**Um... oh, right. I don't own Fairy Tail and all that. Oh, and this was a challenge by Mad Saint 408. The challenge itself is rather large, so the link is thus: s/9387406/1/Mad-Saint-s-Fairy-Tail-challenges-Volu me-1**_

_**The particular challenge is #2. Oh, and to Mad Saint, I'm not really good at longer chapters, so I probably won't reach 4,000 word mark most of the time, but I will do at least 3,000. **_

_**I do not own fairy Tail**_

_**Please leave me a review and tell me what you think. **_

When Lucy entered the magic shop, she saw that there was already a little girl in it who was busy perusing the various small charms. She was perhaps five or six and had a sleek black cat in her arms. The girl had russet red hair shot through with streaks of a lighter red color. It was pulled into two pigtails that almost reached the ground.

Lucy stared at her a moment, as it certainly wasn't normal for a young girl of five to be out and about with only a cat for company.

The girl turned around, her maroon short skirt fluttering around her legs. Lucy saw, with a sudden chill, that her eyes were red. "Hello," the girl said in a startlingly mature voice.

"Hi," Lucy said uncomfortably. She was suddenly aware of the cat's gaze on her and she looked at it more closely. It was a small, sleek black cat. She realized that it had dark gray stripes, but what held her attention were the eyes. They were a shiny black that was even darker than its fur, even darker than the deep shadows underneath the nearest shelf. They seemed to absorb light itself.

The girl cocked her head to the side as if listening to something before saying, "My name is Helishii," she said softly. She paused before adding, "My cat is the Gesilvesih."

_Helishii... that means Firesnake in one of the languages across the sea, _Lucy thought. _And Gesilvesih... that one meant Guardian, didn't it? _"I'm Lucy Heartfilia," she said. "Where're your parents? Are you lost? What's your last name?"

Helishii smiled sweetly before saying, "I don't have a family name. As for my parents... I had a father, but he's dead now. My mother died giving birth and my father suicided. I was taken in by the old Gesilvesih, so that's why the current one is traveling with me now. If I'd been able to use Take Over then I would be the current Gesilvesih but I couldn't, so that's why it's my cat instead of me."

"You said your cat is the Gesilvesih," Lucy said slowly. "What does that mean?"

"I think you should buy what you came for first," the girl said calmly. "We can talk about that later, but the man is looking kind of impatient."

After Lucy purchased a new celestial spirit key, the pair headed off to a bench to talk. Lucy never even noticed the girls talking about Salamander. "So what's the Gesilvesih?" she asked.

"The Guardian," the girl replied. "Or rather, the chosen of the Three Guardians. They each give him a bit of their magic. You see, the Guardians can't interfere with the workings of the world directly, so they found a human and gave him a bit of their magic. Then that human found the next Gesilvesih and passed on the magic, and so it went until it came to my cat."

"But how did a cat come to carry the name?" Lucy asked, still confused.  
"Because he's not really a cat," the girl said calmly. "He's my brother, he just happens to look like a cat right now. It's something he can do. See, each of the Guardians has a bit of their own magic that's unique to them. The last one, Ryda, could speak to birds. My brother can turn into a cat. It's all the same, really."

Helishii paused, frowning thoughtfully to herself. "It seems like I must be going," she said calmly. "We will meet again." Then she slipped off of the bench and ran off down the street, still carrying her cat.

_**Elsewhere**_

Natsu's stomach rumbled again and he sighed to himself. Not only had that lead not been right, but now he was hungry on top of that! And did he mention that he was _hungry ?_ As he was turning a corner, a small girl ran right into him. She sort of bounced backwards and skidded to a halt.

"I'm sorry," Natsu said after a moment. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, fine," the girl said, looking up at him closely. The cat jumped out of her arms and suddenly transformed into a teenager. The teen had dark hair and eyes, and wore a functional set of pants and T-shirt. He also had what looked like the beginning of a tattoo on his left shoulder, but as his sleeve covered most of it Natsu couldn't make out what it was.

"You Igneel's son?" the teen asked in a deep voice to fit his large, muscular frame.

"Igneel? You know Igneel?" Natsu asked eagerly. "What's your name?"

"I Zhes," the teen answered. "Yes, know of Igneel. He Dracala Valley's fire-god-king, but left fifty years before. Leader find note, say Igneel has son. No Igneel word since."

When Natsu's face wrinkled up in puzzlment, Happy sighed and said, "He means that Igneel was the ruler or something of Dracala Valley and he left fifty years ago, but left a note recently saying he'd raised you? But he hasn't said anything since. I think."

"Wow, you're smart, Happy!" Natsu said in appreciation.

"Aye!" Happy responded.

"I apologize for my brother," the girl said with a sweet smile. "He doesn't speak your language very well." She turned her head and almost casually spit a high-speed stream of something in a nearby bush. "It's rude to eavesdrop, you know," she said conversationally as screams erupted from the bush.

Natsu washed curiously as the blue-haired man he'd met earlier came rolling out from under the bushes. He was clutching at his eyes and screaming.

"I only spat the blinding one at you," the girl remarked. "It's not like it'll kill you, and the effects will wear off in an hour or so." She paused, and added, "And before you ask, I am _not _going to your stupid party."

Wordless screams answered her. To Natus's mildly ill look, she said "He was planning on enslaving all the girls who came to his party."

"What?" Natsu asked in confusion. "How do you know that?"

"Skill," the girl replied, shrugging.

"Are you very skilled?" Happy asked.

"Yup!" she said cheerfully. Then she said something in a sibilant, almost snake-like language. Her brother said something back, and then the pair turned to go away.

"Oh, bye!" the girl said cheerily, calling that over her shoulder in the general direction of Natsu and Happy.

"We never did get her name..." Natsu remarked.

"I'm sure it's not important," Happy replied. The pair glanced at each other, shrugged, and went on their way looking for food.

_**Several days later**_

When Natsu and Happy got back to the guild (for once not destroying anything), they found that it had somehow gained three new members while they were gone. The first was a big-chested blonde who introduced herself as Lucy. Natsu almost immediately challenged her to a duel, only to be yelled at by Gray, which started the pair fighting again.

He didn't meet the second and third members until later, when Fairy Tail started brawling again.  
"Ooh, cool, a fight!" a voice squealed from above and a young girl jumped down to join in the brawl.

Natsu gaped at her just long enough for her to trip him and move on to a new victim. He got to his feet in time to see the other new guy walking in through the door, yawning. He looked around, then called, "Hel, find job?"

The girl pouted and slipped out from underneath the crush of guild members. "No, sorry, Zhes," she said. "I fell asleep."

Zhes said something to her in that language of theirs, and the girl headed over to him just in time for Makarov to appear out of the back and stop the fight.

"Haha! I'm the strongest!" Natsu crowed, only to be stomped on by Makarov's foot moments later.

"Must you brats fight all the time?" Makarov muttered under his breath before coughing. "Ahem! I have been getting _tons _of paperwork from the Magic Council about you destroying things! Again! Natsu, strangely, hasn't destroyed anything for a few days, but, _you managed to destroy the villate you were supposed to protect! _Gray also has multiple accounts of recent destruction... too numerous to say now... err, Elfman and Cana! Property damage numbers about... 5000 jewel? Good job." The Master suddenly groaned after moving the next paper to the bottom of the stack.

"Zhes and Helishii... apparently you've destroyed some kind of, and I quote, "Weird tower in the middle of the sea"? Huh, interesting, this one was filled out by Siegrain in particular." He shook his head and returned to the topic at hand.

"Anyway, screw the magic council!" he shouted. He set the papers in fire somehow and tossed them to Natsu, who caught them and ate them. "We could never achieve anything if we payed attention to those eyes watching us from above! We are Fairy Tail!"

Resounding cheers echoed around them while Zhes and Lucy looked rather surprised. Well, Lucy looked surprised; Zhes could have been feeling any number of things. Helishii was just laughing.

_**Still later... **_

After Natsu went storming after Macao, (with _Cana _following), Helishii, or Hel as she preferred to be called, approached Lucy with yet another sweet smile on her face.

"Hey, Lucy, you wanna join our team?" she asked.

"Team? What team?" Lucy asked in confusion.

"Well, you see, wizards often form teams that do the harder jobs that they couldn't do alone. Zhes and I have already formed a team, but we thought you'd be a good addition because of your magic. We're also gonna try and get Mirajane, if we can."

"What do you mean, because of my magic?" Lucy asked in confusion.

"You're a celestial spirit wizard," Hel said in a tone that said she thought it was obvious. "You're the Guardian of Light, duh. Mirajane's the Guardian of Darkness, and then Zhes is the Guardian of the Physical Realm. As for me, I'm the Guardian of Life."

"What do you mean, I'm the Guardian of Light? I've never even heard of that title before today. What are all these Guardians?"

"Well, see, there's three different forces in our universe. There's Light and Darkness, and then where they meet there's Gray. The Physical Realm is the battlefield of Light and Darkness, so most of us are Gray. But then there's some that are completely Light or completely Dark. You're completely Light, and Mira's completely Dark. So you must be the Guardians of each. And then Zhes's job is to Guard the Physical Realm and make sure it doesn't get destroyed by the fighting, see. By Guardian of Life, I mean that I'm basically the Healer—that is, it's my job to Heal all of the things that go wrong."

"But then why do you want a guardian of Darkness on your team? Isn't Darkness bad?" Lucy aked, still confused.

"No, no! That's a stupid human misconception. Darkness is a needed force in our universe. It's not good or bad, the same way that Light isn't good or bad. As I said, Gray is us, so it can be either good or bad, although the terms are relative."

"Then what are you Guarding it from?"

"Chaos, of course," Hel said calmly. "What else?"

"Chaos? Isn't that part of Darkness?"

"No, why would you think that?" Hel gave Lucy a puzzled look. "Chaos is the force that's trying to disrupt the natural order of things. See, there's three so-called Divine Guardians, and then there's like the three other Divine Divine Guardians, if that makes any sense. They're all fighting a battle against Chaos right now and will until the end of time. However, Chaos can also attack down here and try to disrupt the battle between Light and Dark here on the battlefield.

"So the six Guardians chose humans to stop that from happening and to keep the balance. Hence why we all have our special powers. Of course, you and Mira don't know how to use yours yet, but you will. Zhes's whole magic is from them, really, except for his ability to turn into a cat, but I only got my healing venom from them."

"I see..." Lucy said, although she really didn't. "So then your, I don't know, purpose, is to stop the forces of Chaos?"

"Sort of," Hel said. "It's to stop Chaos from disrupting the balance, that is, to keep him away from the Physical Realm. It would be impossible for us to actually _stop _him." She paused, then added, "Zhes and I came here to find you guys. I doubt Mirajane will join before she uses her powers again, though. She'll feel like she's too weak, and not the demoness that she really is.

"Anyway, will you join us?"

"I... I guess," Lucy said. "I suppose Im gonna need a team anyway, since I'm so weak compared to all of you..."

"That's not true," Hel said calmly. "You're weak right now, but you'll get stronger pretty quickly. Besides, you still haven't unlocked your Divine Gift. You'll get stronger for sure. Of course, I have no idea what it is, but it'll be something powerful, or at least important."

"Found job," Zhes said quietly, coming over to them. He raised a flier asking a group of wizards to come and charge up a giant lacrima. "Not Guardian job, but food job."

Hel nodded. "Okay!" she said cheerfully. "Did you already tell Mira that we're going?"

Zhes nodded his big head and Hel smiled. "Cool!" she said cheerfully. "Now come on, Lu."

"What did you just call me?" Lucy shouted as she was pulled out of the guild.

"Lu," Hel said happily. "It's your new nickname, like Hel is mine and Zhes is Zhestraposh's. Names across the sea tend to be really long, see."

"Um, okay," Lucy said somewhat uncertainly.

_**Elsewhere**_

The shadowbird flew across the sparkling waters of the ocean, intent on delivering the message attached to its leg. Despite its name, this creature was very firmly Gray, although perhaps a darker shade than a lightbird, or phoenix, would have been.

This bird had been sent by the one that had once been called the "Master of Darkness." That was, of course, stupid. No one master Darkness, it was a primal force that ruled the universe. Anyway, this person, whether or not his titles made any sense, had sent the bird out to deliver his message to the current Guardians, and the bird would obey because _this _particular person was an even darker shade of gray then the bird was, and as such was its master, for that was how shadowbirds had been made.

Of course, the shadowbird itself didn't really know any of this, as it was a bird and birds have brains the size of a walnut. If you asked why it was so big, then, the correct answer would be that it had lots and lots of padding for that walnut-sized brain. If it didn't, then it would have died out long ago.

No, all the shadowbird knew was that it was to deliver the message to the ones calling themselves Guardians. It was a really vague destination, though, so it would probably take a while for the message to actually get delivered.

Really, the "Master of Darkness" should have known better than to use a bird that could barely remember how to fly, for invariably the bird forgot what it was suppsoed to be delivering where, and _then _the bird was compelled to do it again, flew a bit closer to its destination, and then forgot.

So that was how this bird ended up in Fiore instead of across the sea where it was _supposed _to go. Fortunately for both it and its master, the Guardians had recently come across the sea to Fiore. Unfortunately, the bird had taken several years to get here and would probably take several more before the message was finally delivered... unless the bird actually started thinking for once, or got very lucky.

It was probably going to be the latter.

_**A brief history of the past 500 years**_

When he was small, perhaps five or six, maybe even as young as four, Chaos managed to break through the Guardians' web briefly. In that brief time, it decided to imbue a young wizard with the will of Chaos, so that they might have an agent.

And so, it sent out a single strand of itself (for a larger one would surely kill the boy) and entered him. His body crackled with yellow energy for a few moments before subsiding. Then Chaos had to withdraw, and pray that the Guardians didn't know what it had done.

Now Chaos had one agent in the Physical Realms, but it knew that one was not enough, would never be enough. The second (well not really second, but second in terms of recent human memory) time it pierced through the Guardians' shield, it created something of its own by managing to harness the powers of Light for just a moment. This person then went on to try and destroy the Physical Realms, for if the battlefield crumbled then surely Gray would also fall and the natural order of things would be no more.

However, this person was sealed away and was sealed for several centuries. In its anger, Chaos found another young boy and _twisted _him, making him into a thing that lived only to destroy. However, that thing managed somehow to fight its urges and so it didn't do what Chaos wanted it to, instead going into hibernation for several centuries.

Chaos was thrown back from the Physical Realms and all was right in the world, for a little bit anyway. Then the first one broke free from his prison, and (to the anger of Chaos) decided to settle down on an island and not kill or destroy anyone or anything.

The second one would awaken soon, though, and when it did the Physical Realms would surely be destroyed, for what force in the Realms could stop an angry dragon whose element was Destruction?


End file.
